


Avoid Insinuation

by TintedPink



Series: The Avengers Polycule [8]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: And he'd prefer it stay that way, But it's not that serious?? I don't know how to put. He's out, M/M, Outed Without Consent, Relationship Negotiation, but not to the media, media attention, public outting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:48:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23888476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TintedPink/pseuds/TintedPink
Summary: Like the MCU, the Avengers Polycule begins with Tony Stark and James Rhodes.
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark
Series: The Avengers Polycule [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1326113
Comments: 6
Kudos: 29





	Avoid Insinuation

**Author's Note:**

> Look who's back and better than ever! Not edited, but when is it ever?

The headlines read “Tony Stark caught holding hands with Air Force Colonel.”

The tabloids are careful to avoid outright accusations, but they can’t be sued for insinuation, or presenting the facts in a way that might lead the reader to the (for once correct) conclusion that Tony Stark was involved with James Rhodes. 

It wasn’t supposed to be made public, as Rhodey said continuously when he was sitting in Tony’s sprawling living room. Dorm living was too small for Tony Stark. He went big, always, including his college living space.

“Tones, I’m going into the military, they are paying for my Master’s. I can’t just be openly with you.”

“Platypus, I’ve told you. Obie will pull some strings and it’ll all be gone in a few weeks and from now on we’ll be careful.”

“You’ll be careful. I’m not the one who likes to do an imitation of a Koala every time we step outside.” Rhodey said, laughing despite himself. Tony smirks from where he’s tinkering in the corner workshop. It’s not as big as he’d like it to be, but he had a hard time getting the kind of power he needed to run a full workshop in the antiquated pent-house apartment. Maybe next semester he’d deal with it.

“Rhodey bear, you wound me. I wouldn’t call it a koala. Maybe a sloth. They’re grabby, kind of spiky claws but not too far off the mark.” He turned off his blow torch and put his welding mask up. “Do you really not like it?”

Rhodey smiles and gets up from Tony’s expensive couch, walks across his refinished fire-proof flooring, and stops on the other side of Tony’s work table, the metal of his latest pet project sitting still heated between them. “I like it. I don’t think it’s what either of us need in the tabloids. Save it for when we’re alone?” 

Tony knows it’s a reasonable request. There’s no desperation to it, or anger. If Tony simply refused to stop trying to touch Rhodey at every opportune and many inopportune moments, Rhodey would forgive him. He’d be disappointed, and maybe think it was selfish of Tony, but he’d forgive him, take the punches as they fell, take as many of Tony’s as he could manage. 

That was why Tony was going to do his best to lay off. 

The kind of friend, and boyfriend, Rhodey was deserved to have his boundaries respected. All their friends knew that Tony was with Rhodey, though many of them didn’t understand the casual nature of their relationship and looked down their noses at Tony’s flings. Rhodey wasn’t asking to stay in the closet. He was asking not to have his face and his orientation plastered all over the media for anyone, their mother and their great dead grand pappy to see. 

“I can’t make any promises, but I’ll try.” Tony’s welding mask was put back into place as a physical barrier between his boyfriend and his feelings, and Tony turned his welder back on. “Grab me my socket wrench? I need it to hit something.” 

“Not what a socket wrench is for.”

“Ask my grad students if I care.”

Tony didn’t care about socket wrenches and their appropriate uses. He did care about his Rhodey bear. 


End file.
